tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post1156604147755219377..comments2024-03-29T11:07:51.893+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Playing Sergeant Pepper.Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-41429235628182474682016-12-28T21:09:45.881+13:002016-12-28T21:09:45.881+13:00Some of the best political writing I've ever r...Some of the best political writing I've ever read. Subtly hilarious, straightforward, perceptive and entertaining. Please go on pissing off the ruling class and the Incoherent Left.manfredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05864320667710466331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-12707421354061162552016-12-23T09:27:40.225+13:002016-12-23T09:27:40.225+13:00I heard someone say that top executives make decis...I heard someone say that top executives make decisions on things whose effects aren't immediately apparent. In which case many things don't have an "owner", for example traffic and foreigners arriving to buy houses. What gets forgotten is the possibility of a counterfactual situation.<br />if only we had an impartial review of various governments performances at (say) 10 years on?jhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-12438467464952222072016-12-21T22:59:01.887+13:002016-12-21T22:59:01.887+13:00I agree the primary sentiment was relief in the Cl...I agree the primary sentiment was relief in the Clarke years. The primary force. Hence, 84ism carried on. Helen gave money to Phil's mayoral campaign. Her publications against rogernomics at every election were just about gathering us in. <br /><br />What do you make about the reaction to collectivism that seems so solid in the ten years above you Chris? I don't doubt their nz roots. They carry on to this day. They seem oblivious.I won't name the names, but they were instrumental.<br /><br />Yet, from the beginning , I remember Brian Eastman, W.P.Reeves, Kim Hill and other folk . Won't name my own generation.<br /><br />We have doubts, they have certainties. It won't matter much soon.Soft,soft,soft.<br /><br />volnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-1538994501787961232016-12-21T19:00:03.719+13:002016-12-21T19:00:03.719+13:00@greywarbler 12.02
perfect...and best of all, suc...@greywarbler 12.02<br /><br />perfect...and best of all, succinct.pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08727942156598555852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-74973759379644334432016-12-21T12:02:53.052+13:002016-12-21T12:02:53.052+13:00Just a wry comment that seems vaguely dull! From...Just a wry comment that seems vaguely dull! From Dietrich Bonhoeffer.<br /><br /><i>If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.</i><br />Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/dietrich_bonhoeffer.htmlgreywarblernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-58448886554614559132016-12-21T08:24:11.779+13:002016-12-21T08:24:11.779+13:00Helen Clark "dull but vaguely competent"...Helen Clark "dull but vaguely competent"!? Bliss. 100% better than we have today. What's to diss about earnestly aiming for competency?? Shallow comment that one from Fladger or some incompetent and unthinking.<br /><br />The sparkle can come into the political scene as they complete each project successfully and celebrate achieving things for the mass of the people. And find small ways to advance everyone's hopes. We can turn cartwheels, raise a glass, laugh and sing then after that far-from-dull success.greywarblernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-87674120323141659982016-12-20T22:41:27.452+13:002016-12-20T22:41:27.452+13:00Hi Chris
After 6 1/2 years of Rogernomics f...Hi Chris<br /><br /> After 6 1/2 years of Rogernomics followed by 7 of Ruthanasia we were all ready for a breather. Anything seemed a relief.<br />Cheers David J SDavid Stonenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-89777575239404236522016-12-20T18:15:37.709+13:002016-12-20T18:15:37.709+13:00And now Labour are paying the price for all that d...And now Labour are paying the price for all that dullness. Helen Clark’s policy was to take Politics off the front page whilst surreptitiously rubbing off the rough edges of the New Right Revolution. Since those rough edges were very rough, rubbing them off made a perceptible difference changing people’s lives for the better. So to begin with dullness was indeed good, since the rubbing off could be done without provoking undue opposition and lots of people were happy with the results. But once those rough edges were rubbed off, there was nothing to do but to manage public affairs in a competent manner (since reversing the New Right Revolution was not for Clark an option) . Though Clark was undoubtedly a competent Prime Minister and her Number Two, Michael Cullen, was a very competent Finance Minister, some of her minsters were not so competent, and over time slip-ups, scandals and SNAFUs started to accumulate. A low-key, National Party fronted with barbecue bonhomie by Key, could pose as equally competent if not more so, and since their secret plans to surreptitiously restore the rough edges were not in evidence, Labour did not have the rhetoric to resist them when they proclaimed it was ‘Time for a Change’. Taking politics off the front page is all very well in the short term but even a *mildly*reformist government needs to have a positive vision - something a bit more inspiring than competent management - to sell to the public if it to beat a Party whose official *policy* is to manage public affairs in a competent manner, especially as low-level managerial incompetence was beginning to tarnish Labour’s brand. Charles Pigdenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01131765562671298571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-7505686013858724222016-12-20T16:28:56.262+13:002016-12-20T16:28:56.262+13:00plus ça change, plus c'est la même choseplus ça change, plus c'est la même choseAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-30346862177443617932016-12-20T14:52:05.501+13:002016-12-20T14:52:05.501+13:00We obviously found politics so boring that we went...We obviously found politics so boring that we went instead for a theatrical presentation, a song and dance act from someone who would do anything for his peers, even get in a cage to amuse the punters, make amusing admissions about peeing in the shower, just like any ordinary joe would do. Remember Toronto's Rob Ford gross and foolish but getting sports celebrity status, and pleasing all those who think that getting drunk and behaving badly is highly amusing and worthy.<br /><br />And RWs continual running down of intellectuals and those with solid facts that would embarrass the gummint added to the cold shoulder from the public. All the 'sensible' people were damned as out of touch with the modern, sparkling style of precocious performance of NZs Got Talent and so solid, experienced and committed was dismissed as old stuff, useless for us today, now, forward-moving people.greywarblernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-46913829248751176252016-12-20T14:04:41.271+13:002016-12-20T14:04:41.271+13:00Helen Clark always came across as humourless and r...Helen Clark always came across as humourless and robotic.<br /><br />History will write her up as the bureaucrat prime minister.<br /><br />Dull but vaguely competent.Flaggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-16194961359438869772016-12-20T11:36:21.945+13:002016-12-20T11:36:21.945+13:00It would be simply great if we could return to thi...It would be simply great if we could return to thinking of politics as boring.<br /><br />Who, in their right mind, wants to live in "interesting times"?Victornoreply@blogger.com